Stop The World
by emileighhs
Summary: Annabeth, Thalia, Grover and Luke are on the run. Piper wants to learn how to shoot a gun, and Jason wants to teach her. Percy is honestly tired of zombies. Hazel and Frank kill a lot, and Leo is the mechanic. Welcome to the post-apocalyptic world. Who doesn't love Zombie AU's?
1. Chapter 1

Yay for zombie apocalypse AUs! Follow me on tumblr: spookyseaweedbrainer c;

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Annabeth leaned over to slip her shoes on, her soaking wet hair dripping water droplets onto her arms. She stood back up and leaned to the side to squeeze the water out of her hair again. The water splashed against the layers of dust and dirt covering the hardwood floor. She had to leave soon; she'd already been there too long. She just hadn't taken a shower in so long, and the run down house actually had power and hot water. Even now, as she was sliding on her jacket and hooking her knife on her belt, she was tempted to stay.

Annabeth hesitated as she lifted her baseball from the bed. The bed still had covers and pillows that were in good shape. _Maybe I can just stay the night_, she told herself. She set the bat back down. _And I can leave first thing in the morning._

Just as she finished this thought, the front door downstairs crashed open. She had made sure to lock it when she came in, so panic set in when she heard footsteps up the stairs. Grabbing the bat from the bed and her gun, she hid behind the door and held her breath. The footsteps were slow, and there was more than one pair. Annabeth had taken down a pack of zombies on her way here; she could totally handle a few more. The reassurance never stopped her heart from pounding or her hands from sweating.

She wrung her hands on the base of the bat as someone stepped over the threshold of the bedroom. Annabeth flew from behind the door and would have totally brained the guy, but he was quicker. He caught the wrist with the bat and squeezed until she released. The bat clattered to the ground and Annabeth looked up into a pair of bright blue eyes.

"Luke?" A girl called, her voice traveling from across the hall.

"It's okay, she's human," the guy, Luke, answered. He glanced at his fingers still wrapped tightly around Annabeth's wrist and he let go quickly.

"Sorry," he said, gesturing to the red marks where his fingers had just been. He looked older than Annabeth, maybe in his mid-twenties. He was also handsome. The only thing that threw Annabeth of was the scar on his face. The scar ran from just underneath his blue eyes to his chin. He had an athletic build, though, that made up for it.

Annabeth took a step back and reached down to grab her baseball bat. She slid her gun into its holster attached to her belt. She had reached for it after she dropped her bat as an instinct.

A moment later, a girl, the same one who had called the Luke, stuck her head in the door and looked straight at Annabeth. She had spikey black hair and a lot of freckles. She was also wearing a lot of black. She stepped inside the door, and slung around her back was a bow and a sheath of arrows.

"Hi," the girl said, giving Annabeth a curious look. "My name is Thalia."

"Uhh" was all Annabeth said. She was in shock. She hadn't seen a human since before she left Virginia. The dead were her only company, so it took a moment for her to form words. Thalia and Luke were both staring at her, waiting for her reply.

"Uh, right. I'm Annabeth," she finally said.

"Where are you headed?" Luke asked.

"Anywhere safe. I haven't found a place yet," she admitted.

"Grover knows where there's a safe place. That's who we're traveling with. He's downstairs raiding the pantry," Thalia said.

"He won't find anything," Annabeth said, grinning. She slid her pack off of her back and showed them the inside. It was packed with all the canned goods and non-expired food.

"She nearly bashed my head in with that bat," Luke said, grinning. "We could use a fighter like you. Do you want to come with us? It seems we're all headed to the same place."

Annabeth studied the two for a minute. She'd made it all this way by herself, she was positive she could make it the rest of the way alone as well. But where did the rest of the way lead? She had no idea where she was going. She just wanted to get away from the death. And they said this Grover kid knew where it was safe.

"Well," Annabeth said, zipping her pack back up and slinging it back on to her shoulders. "Killing zombies _does_ get lonely."

* * *

Piper looked at the gun on the bed, deep in contrast compared to the white covers. She stared at it, feeling the urge to reach out and touch it. Before all of this had happened, Piper had never seen a gun before. Now they were everywhere; in hands, strapped to belts, slung over backs and hidden underneath pillows. She had never shot a gun either; her choice of weapon was the knife she carried. It wasn't as effective as a gun because you had to get in close range to use it, but when a dead guy tackles you and tries to rip off your arm for a midnight snack, it works pretty well.

Still, Piper knew guns were better. Otherwise, why would everyone have one? Her problem was she didn't have one and she had no idea how to shoot one. It's simple, pull the trigger, but she had bad aim and she didn't even know where the bullets went.

"Piper?

Piper jumped at the sound of her name and spun to see Jason standing in the doorway. She blushed furiously because she was, in fact, in Jason's room. Her eyes jumped to the gun still lying on the bed, and she took a big step away from it.

"Sorry, you weren't here and the door was open," Piper said, her face still hot. She was mostly blushing because Jason was attractive. He was taller than her, with blonde hair and bright blue eyes. There was also something about the way he was so innocent, how he had to follow all of the rules and never be mischievous, drew her to him. She wanted to corrupt him.

"Interested in my gun?" he asked, stepping inside and gesturing to the bed. Piper crossed her arms and frowned.

"I've never held a gun. I really want to use it instead of my dagger. It seems more efficient."

"You need one," Jason agreed. He narrowed his eyes at her and tilted his head. "I could see you with a hand gun. I'll get you one. And I can teach you how to use it."

"Oh," Piper said. "That was unexpected."

Jason grinned. "Well, I don't exactly want you to be eaten."

Piper wondered if that was some weird way of flirting with post-apocalyptic zombie pickup lines, when she remembered the reason she was in Jason's room in the first place.

"Oh! Percy wanted me to come get you. Some important zombie-killing meeting or something like that," she said. Jason raised an eyebrow.

"Come on. We can walk together."


	2. Chapter 2

Percy leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms behind his head. Spread out before him were the blueprints of the apartment. Leo had found them down in the basement while doing his mechanic magic to get the electricity working. The whole right side of the blue prints was covered in red X's, indicating where it was not safe to go. With a sigh, Percy lifted his red marker made another, large X over a room that had been previously assumed safe. They now had a dead body to prove it wasn't.

Now, Percy had to get together a few people to check all of the other rooms-if they even had enough for a team. The only people left were Jason, Piper, Leo, Frank, Nico, and Percy himself. Everyone else was gone; they either decided to go out on their own, or they had been infected. Either way, they were more than likely dead.

There was a knock on Percy's apartment door and he leaned forward to open it. The apartments were small, but there were many of them. One side of the apartment building was blocked off; the other side held the people-all six of them. They all had their own room, and there were plenty extra ones.

Jason stuck his head in and lifted his hand in a wave.

"Hey," he said, and he stepped in the room with Piper following him.

Percy leaned back in his chair again and narrowed his eyes at the two standing before him. Piper was staring at Jason, and when she shifted her eyes to Percy, she scowled. He tried his best to hide a smile as he glanced back down at the blueprints.

"Right," Percy said, smoothing his fingers over the old pencil markings. "Silena is gone," he continued, his face void of smile.

"What?" Piper breathed.

"You know how she started acting after Beckendorf died…she wandered into the closed off section for some reason and she got bit. By the time we got there…." Percy trailed off, knowing there was nothing he could say.

Silena was one of their friends who lived in the abandoned apartment building. She had actually been Percy's neighbor, so when the building was evacuated, they both stayed behind. And now she was gone. Her boyfriend, Beckendorf, was a big guy who lived in a house three streets over. Neither of them were sure how he ended up in their building the week everything went wrong, but he was, and Silena was head over heels. Then, last week, while Percy and Beckendorf went on a mission to take down a large group of walkers that were headed their way, Beckendorf was taken down-grabbed by a zombie twice his size that mastered in the art of surprise. Percy had to break the news to Silena and he had never seen anyone so broken. Now they were both gone.

"Oh no," Piper said, her mouth open and eyes wide. Piper and Silena were like sisters.

"I'm sorry, Piper," Percy offered, knowing how empty the words sounded.

Jason was looking at Piper, frowning, before he pulled her into his arms. Percy knew Jason liked Piper; it was pretty obvious. It was obvious that Piper had feelings for Jason, too, but Jason was too oblivious.

A moment later, Piper pulled away and rubbed her face furiously.

"We need to get some people together and check all of the rooms again. Also, we need to add extra protection to the right side so people don't wander over there," Percy said after Piper looked at him expectantly.

"You, me, Frank, and Leo," Jason suggested. "Frank is strong and Leo is the only one who actually knows what he's doing."

_And us to supervise,_ Percy thought.

It had been a year since New York had been infected. The infection started from Maine and made its way down and across the whole United States. Nobody was sure if any other countries were like them. The News had stopped long ago. Percy was only sixteen when it happened-when the news started reporting "Real Life Zombies" and suggestions on not how to get infected. Then, slowly, one by one, the news reports stopped until the only thing that came on was static.

Percy's dad worked at the top of the Empire State Building, and Percy hadn't seen him since everything started. His mother and step-father left as well, and Percy and his mother argued until their faces were blue. He wanted to stay; she didn't want to leave him. In the end, Percy won. His mom knew he could protect himself. He may not be exactly smart, but he knew self-defense well. He hadn't seen them since, either.

Jason, Piper, and Leo had come from Arizona. They were enrolled in a school for dysfunctional kids, and on their way to the Grand Canyon when their bus driver realized that all the cars were stopped and there were dead people walking around. The bus driver tried to make it all the way to New York, but he only made it to Arkansas before he was attacked and the bus crashed. Jason got a concussion that resulted in amnesia, and the three of them fought their way to the abandoned building. Percy had been on watch that day and saw the three of them fighting in the middle of the street. He got a few people together and completed a rescue mission.

Then came Hazel and Frank. Hazel was a small, thirteen year-old girl who had a mean swing with her spatha. Percy had never seen or even _heard _of a spatha before Hazel arrived. Frank was a tall, strong Chinese guy who was attached to his bow and arrows. Percy tried to teach both of them to use guns, but Hazel didn't like them at all, and Frank preferred his bow. They all carried around a gun anyway, except for Hazel and Piper, but they never went anywhere alone. It was a rule (and basically common sense.)

Leo was the only one who ever went anywhere alone, and that was mostly because he didn't want anybody "breathing on his precious works of art," and no one even remotely knew what to do. Leo was like a little angry elf, and he got annoyed very easily. So if you didn't know any tools past a wrench or screwdriver, he didn't want you down there.

Nobody knew Leo's back story, not even Jason or Piper, and no one ever asked either. It was always safe to never ask.

The good thing was Jason's memory was fully recovered. The three had been there for a few months, now, and Jason could remember everything.

Percy pushed open the nearest door with his shoes and glanced behind him at the three boys poised for attack. Jason had his gun, Frank had an arrow notched, and Leo has his screwdriver raised. Percy pointed his gun inside the dark room and shone his flashlight into the pitch black. The light landed on a face. Standing in the corner was a corpse. The eyes had been gouged out and the skin was green. Half of the skin had fallen off the face, and the teeth were exposed. The zombie slumped forward a step and Percy raised his gun to shoot when out of nowhere, something threw him to the ground.

Percy landed on his shoulder and nearly bit his tongue off when his head slammed against the hardwood floor. He heard a growling sound and immediately shot. The bullet entered the eye of the second zombie and exited through the back of its skull. It collapsed on Percy, and he pushed it off with a grunt.

Jason grabbed his arm and helped him up.

"Are you okay? That thing came out of nowhere," Frank said. The arrow was missing from his fingers, and Percy could see it had made its mark in the first corpse's forehead.

Despite the pounding of Percy's heart and the blood filling his mouth, he nodded. "I'm fine."

Because he knew fear rubbed off so easily, and he didn't need his friends to get scared now. Not when there were fifty other rooms to check. So Percy wiped the blood that was dribbling out of his mouth and motioned for the others to follow him in to the next room.

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_Just a little background information :) sorry for any mistakes! Thanks for the reviews and follows and favorites!_


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